My Ruminations on Educational Technology

iPhone 4S- My “new” tech tool

I splurged last week on a new iPhone. It was last Friday, the day that Apple began shipping, amongst all the hype I might add, it’s “New iPad.” I ‘happened’ to be driving through Pittsburg and, as I am wont to do, detoured to the Apple store to see if the product lived up to the hype. The screen alone made me eager to buy an iPad (surprisingly there were some still available) but my pragmatism got the better of me. I use my iPhone a lot and I have seen just how useful they can be and I’d been struggling with my iPhone 3G still running iOS 3! I grabbed a new 4S and I am thrilled I did.
So here’s an idea I think is pretty cool for using mobile technology in your classroom and its been tested on my new iPhone and works very well. I created a writing activity from a template shared with me through my Twitter PLN. The activity comes from this tweet Writing 25 Word Stories that I edited for my class, converted it to Google Docs and shared it to my students. They made copies and started working on it. Through Google Docs they shared their copies back to me and now I can see all their work in progress, as they think through and type their rough drafts and final copies. Of course, I can see all the revisions they make, and suggest edits, all from my iPhone 4S, at lightning speeds. Yep, mobile technology at its best. They posted their products on their Blogs, and I can see what they’ve posted, and all the comments their peers have added, including constructive criticism, all from my iPhone 4S, as well!
By the way, I am blogging this using the WordPress App on my iPhone. Pretty pleased with my purchase I am!